New Zealand in the OECD

New Zealand’s research and development (R&D) expenditure as a proportion of gross domestic product (GDP) increased from 1.15 percent in 2002 to 1.16 percent in 2004. However, this continues to be well below the OECD average of 2.24 percent of GDP. In 2004, total private sector R&D expenditure was 0.49 percent of GDP, up from 0.42 percent in 2002. New Zealand’s government sector R&D expenditure was 0.34 percent of GDP in 2004, significantly higher than the OECD government average of 0.25 percent.

Research and Development Expenditure

percentage of GDP, latest year available

	Percentage of GDP
OECD	2.24
New Zealand	1.16

Researchers

In terms of the number of researchers per 1,000 people employed, New Zealand is eighth among the OECD countries. This placed New Zealand (7.8 per 1,000) behind Belgium (8.7 per 1,000) and in front of Australia (7.6 per 1,000). The number of full-time equivalent researchers totalled 15,568 in 2004. The majority of these researchers (62 percent) are attributed to the universities, including 6,885 postgraduate research students. In the same year, 26 percent of researchers worked for New Zealand businesses, while 12 percent worked for the government sector.

Numbers of Researchers

per 1,000 total employed, latest year available

	Per 1,000
New Zealand	7.8
OECD	6.6

Sources of funding

Of the $1,593.1 million total R&D expenditure in 2004, New Zealand’s government was the largest funding source, contributing 45.1 percent of this total, while the business sector funded 38.5 percent. Included in ‘other’ funding sources were universities and overseas sources, which provided 7.1 percent and 6.8 percent of New Zealand’s R&D expenditure, respectively.

Research and Development Expenditure

percentage by source of funds, latest year available

	Govt	Bus.	Other
New Zealand	45.1	38.5	16.4
OECD	30.5	61.6	7.9

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